While we’re waiting to see what will happen with Teemu Selanne and whether he’ll play again this season or retire, he’s having some fun in southern California and participating in a charity game. In Anaheim, they hold the Fedorin Cup, a game that features a host of former and current NHL’ers playing hockey for charity.

Selanne was there at this year’s game and he was even suiting up and giving it a go on his surgically repaired left knee. While Selanne is hoping to play one more season in the NHL, the one thing that could prevent that from happening is his knee. We’ve heard from Selanne already courtesy of a Finnish TV station blog he wrote saying how he was working out hard to be ready for another season, but still there’s a possibility he might not be able to give it another go. We should know by the time Ducks training camp starts on September 16 what his decision will be.

Randy Youngman of the Orange County Register caught up with Selanne to see which way he’s leaning when it comes to playing next season or retiring. For fans hoping to see Selanne play for one more year, hope is still very much alive.

… He wants one more shot at glory. He was hoping his longtime friend and former linemate, Paul Kariya, would join him for one final season, too, but Kariya decided to retire from the NHL after sitting out the entire 2010-2011 season recovering from concussion symptoms.

“We talked a couple of times and we had lunch with Bob Murray (Ducks GM) to talk about it,” Selanne said. “I was hoping PK could play one more year, but he told me all the stories about the problems he’s had (related to concussions). There are more important things than hockey.”

Selanne knows that, too, but he wants one more tour around the NHL, which this season will include a stop in Winnipeg, where his NHL career began nearly two decades ago.

“I know I don’t really have to play; it’s a ‘gift’ kind of thing,” Selanne said. “But I’m really optimistic about the team we have. We have a chance to do something big here.”

It sounds as if Selanne already has made up his mind about coming back; now he’s waiting for his knee to deliver a second opinion.

Selanne has won just one Stanley Cup in the NHL back in 2007 with the Ducks. Getting a shot to win it one more time before calling it a career, a career that’s seen him score 637 goals, would be the best way to go out with style. With Jonas Hiller being ready to comeback from vertigo and having the reining league MVP ready for another big season in Corey Perry, Selanne is right about the Ducks being a potentially great team.

If Selanne can come back and produce another 30+ goal season and contribute 80 points again, the Ducks could be a team that forces their way into the discussion as potential Stanley Cup finalists with the likes of Vancouver, Chicago, Detroit, and San Jose. A Selanne “victory tour” kind of season that culminates in one more spin around the ice carrying the Cup would be the best way to sending the Finnish Flash off into the sunset.

New York Islanders forward Josh Ho-Sang provided an interesting take to Newsday’s Arthur Staple, and also reminded observes that, as an international sport, the NHL features some players who might not feel as invested in (or at least as informed about) these debates.

“I think what the NFL players are doing is amazing. It’s good that they’re all sticking together,” Ho-Sang said on Monday. “I mean, I’m Canadian, so I don’t have too much input on the matter itself. It will affect me living in the States, but the biggest thing is it’s unfortunate that the message may have gotten lost a little. Now it’s becoming a battle between the NFL and the president and originally [the protests] started because of police brutality and the mistreatment of different races.”

“Protecting the First Amendment is a huge thing,” Okposo said. “I’m a proud American, and I’m proud to be from the United States. Myself personally, I wouldn’t kneel for an anthem, but I respect those that do.”

***

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the current political climate affect NHL players or people they know.

Players in plenty of sports are navigating tough questions this week. It’s important to remember that athletes can find themselves in tough spots when addressing topics that can be polarizing and/or complex.

Can't imagine being 20 years old, talking to a pack of reporters about controversial protests, knowing that any misstep releases the hounds.

With the regular season about to kick into gear on Oct. 4, it’s certain that there will be more eyes on anthems than ever before. The insights in this post should be useful, whether NHL players kneel, sit, speak, or decide to stick to hockey.

The key: after only being able to study brains of deceased athletes, there’s a chance that living athletes with CTE might eventually be identified.

On face value, that’s great news for player health. Hockey, like other contact sports such as football, is no stranger to careers and lives being derailed by brain injuries.

Of course, the NHL and NHLPA would need to cooperate to make the most of potential progress. If you’ve watched hockey long enough, particularly postseason hockey, you know that certain protocols can stand as great concepts met with hesitant execution.

Westhead expounds on such thoughts, and some of his findings aren’t very pretty.

Players might be hesitant to take such tests if it means that they’ll miss playing time (or even see their careers end). It brings back memories of Peyton Manning willfully sandbagging his baseline concussion test. For better or worse, these guys want to play.

NHL player agent: “If I asked 30 of my players if they would take a test to tell them if they have CTE, I think zero would be interested."

Of course, it’s crucial to realize that potential breakthroughs from this study could take quite some time to trickle into functional practices, even if leagues and players end up being more willing to comply than expected.

Overall, this is promising news. Hopefully such changes could help athletes during their careers and into retirement.

Sprong, 20, was the 46th pick of the 2015 NHL Draft. He’s been generating solid numbers at the OHL, so it will be interesting to see how he converts that to AHL work. Sprong played 18 regular-season games for the Penguins back in 2015-16, notching two goals.

There are some bullet points that can sell Nolan, but the 28-year-old’s production was quite limited at the NHL level. Nolan’s never scored 10 goals in a single season; in fact, he’s only reached 10 points once in his career (six goals and four assists in 64 regular-season contests back in 2013-14).

Overall, it wouldn’t be surprising if a team targeted Nolan as a depth guy, even if his ceiling is limited.

While the Penguins’ entries seem notable for sheer volume as much as anything else, Frank Corrado is another name that stands out.

Corrado was often the catalyst for debates about his playing time (or lack thereof) with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it doesn’t seem like the defenseman is having much success catching on with the Penguins, either.

Zatkoff, meanwhile, fits in with quite a few other names on this list: possibly prominent in the AHL, only likely to get the occasional cup of coffee in the NHL, at this point.